Conference realignment

Why is there so much coaching turnover in women's rowing? Harvard, Wisconsin, Central Florida, etc.
A bunch of rumors out there. Which coach goes to what schools. Then, the second wave of coaching changes will start.
Seems unusual? Is it the transfer portal, conference realignment; or, the coaches decided to retire? or, the student/athletes are prima donna's?
There is not much money in rowing; especially for the assistant coaches, etc.

Everything you wanted to know about football but were afraid to ask. Ask about any and all things college football here. There are no dumb questions, only plays you don’t know yet.
Serious questions only, please! Joke posts will be removed. Please do not downvote honest questions.
Got a more specific question or idea? Check out the weekly thread schedule for more:

Day	Thread	Time (ET)
Monday	The Monday Morning Playoff Committee	11:00 AM
	The Monday Afternoon Conference Realignment Committee	2:30 PM
Friday	Football Question Hotline	10:55 AM
	Free Talk Friday	11:00 AM

This is the weekly schedule during the offseason, there's a lot more during the season!

Discuss your thoughts on all things related to conference realignment here--including hypothetical scenarios and how they might play out!

Hey everyone! My name is Matthew, and I’m an insider for the upcoming fan blog College Football Dawgs, launching June 10th!
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Because it’s the offseason, I decided to see how many potential matchups there are between Power 5 Teams, and how many have been played. I made this chart to display these matchups. Out of the 64 current Power 5 members, Notre Dame, and the 4 future teams joining the Big 12, there are a total of 2,346 potential matchups possible. Out of those, 1,802 matchups have been played, with 31 new matchups having been officially scheduled. This leaves 513 matchups that have not been played or scheduled as of yet.
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Teams With The Most Matchups Already
2 programs are tied for having the most matchups played, those being Michigan and Nebraska who only have 5 teams never played. 4 programs are tied for the second most, those being Miami, Missouri, Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas who all have 6 remaining matchups.
Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Texas make sense, as they all have a long history of success and are commonly accepted as blue bloods of the sport. They likely have more games played when compared to other teams in the sport, whether that be due to more bowl games achieved or getting more reach due to their success.
Penn State and Miami could be explained due to their longer history as independents, giving them more options when scheduling (Notre Dame has played all but 7 teams). These two teams have also had a history of success much like the blue blood teams mentioned above.
This leaves us with Missouri. They seem out of place compared to the other teams, but do have a good history of their own. The explanation I could come up with is due to their location near the middle of the country, giving them equal access to both eastern and western teams. They also have history in multiple conferences such as the Big8/12 and SEC, giving them a larger pool of conference opponents than many other teams.
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Teams With The Least Matchups Already Played
Not unexpected, UCF has the least matchups played with 30 Power5 teams never played. This is likely due to their age, having only been competing since 1979 and only having joined FBS ranks in 1996. They are making strides to play new teams, having 4 new future matchups on the schedule already and more likely matchups to happen when they join the Big 12.
Ole Miss is next, having 28 teams they have never played. I don’t have a concrete theory as to why this is the case. One idea is that many teams may have refused to play. Legendary Georgia Tech coach Bobby Dodd famously refused to ever play in Mississippi, so something similar may have happened with other teams. If anyone else has a theory, please leave it in the comments!
In third place is Utah, with 26 teams never played. Their explanation is similar to UCF’s, being a new Power 5 member joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
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Likely Future Conference Matchups
A few matchups will likely be played within the next few years as a result of new conference realignment.

Iowa State	Houston
Iowa State	UCF
TCU	UCF
Texas Tech	UCF
Indiana	UCLA
Rutgers	UCLA
Maryland	USC
Rutgers	USC
Mississippi State	Oklahoma
South Carolina	Oklahoma

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Unplayed Matchups That Surprised Me
Florida State-Texas: 2 major teams in the South with passionate fanbases, I would’ve expected at least a bowl matchup by now.
Penn State-Virginia Tech: 2 programs with a history of independence and close proximity. Matchups were scheduled in 2020 and 2025, though both were cancelled.
Duke-Vanderbilt: 2 nerd schools in nearby states? It would just make sense to play at least once!
LSU-Michigan: This one surprised me the most, both teams having great histories and sustained success. I could see a playoff matchup in the near future.
All matchup info is from Winsipedia. If any information is incorrect, please let me know. And let me know which unplayed matchup surprised you the most in the comments! Hope everyone finds this interesting!

https://www.buffzone.com/2023/05/26/ad-rick-george-cu-buffs-will-do-whats-right-for-colorado-in-conference-realignment
“You’ve got to believe about a third of what you see out there,” George told BuffZone. “We’re members of the Pac-12, we’re proud members of the Pac-12 and we’ve got to see where our media rights deal lands and where our conference goes. In a perfect world, we’d love to be in the Pac-12, but we also have to do what’s right for Colorado at the end of the day. We’ll evaluate things as we move forward.”

Everything you wanted to know about football but were afraid to ask. Ask about any and all things college football here. There are no dumb questions, only plays you don’t know yet.
Serious questions only, please! Joke posts will be removed. Please do not downvote honest questions.
Got a more specific question or idea? Check out the weekly thread schedule for more:

Day	Thread	Time (ET)
Monday	The Monday Morning Playoff Committee	11:00 AM
	The Monday Afternoon Conference Realignment Committee	2:30 PM
Friday	Football Question Hotline	10:55 AM
	Free Talk Friday	11:00 AM

This is the weekly schedule during the offseason, there's a lot more during the season!

• 2019: Boston defeats Toronto in 7 games in the First Round. (Boston loses 4-3 to the Blues)
• 2021: Montreal defeats Toronto in 7 games in the First Round. (Montreal loses 4-1 to the Lightning)
• 2022: Tampa Bay defeats Toronto in 7 games in the First Round. (Tampa loses 4-2 to the Avalanche)
• 2023: Florida defeats Toronto in 5 games in the Second Round. SCF results and opponent TBD.

Additionally, Boston defeated the Maple Leafs in 7 games in the First Round in 2013 before losing to the Blackhawks in 6, meaning that 5 of the last 11 Cup Finals featured a team that defeated the Leafs. Coincidentally, the only Western Conference teams to win the Cup against a team that did not defeat the Leafs during their run in that timespan are the 2014 Kings and the 2015 Blackhawks (the 2021 Canadiens were considered the Western team in their Finals due to the divisional realignment)

I had a post removed about how Big Ten expansion candidates stack up with the rest of the conference in academic rankings. It was removed and I was told it needed to go in the realignment thread. However, there have been other posts made asking people where they think ACC schools would go, among a myriad of other posts that basically amount to people copying and pasting a link to a tweet, all of whom got to stay up.
Why was my analysis any different? I personally feel like some of these realignment posts should have been taken down OR mine should have been allowed to stay up.
Prime example, this got to stay up: https://www.reddit.com/CFB/comments/13qizuz/what_are_the_realistic_final_destinations_for_acc/

Discuss your thoughts on all things related to conference realignment here--including hypothetical scenarios and how they might play out!

I love the Big 12 because literally anyone, in any given year can make it to Arlington. That can't be said for a lot of conferences.
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I love the MAC. Those midweek MACtion games bring some of the best memes this sub has ever seen. The game threads are also often hilarious and I strongly recommend you check them out this season.

I don't know what I did to make this happen, but in the past week or so, there's been a random account on my Twitter feed that has been absolutely tearing it up with re-alignment speculation and I've read so much of it that I just can't possibly get it all down in one coherent thought, so you know what the means: it's time to play my favorite game, Realignment Bingo! (They Ain't Dead Yet Edition.)
So, what brought this on?
The B1G is just starting a mammoth media deal (though apparently our schools weren't told about the necessity of November night games for the NBC portion of the contract and there have been grumbles...) and the SEC is the SEC and in a changing sports environment where some leagues/schools are making obscene amounts of money, it's not surprising that the ACC is looking around and being like, "hey, this contract until 2036 thing kind of sucks".
The so-called 'Magnificent 7' went public this week (Clemson, FSU, Miami, UNC, NC State, Virginia, and VaTech) and basically, they want uneven revenue distribution because they bring in more money than everyone else.
That move has sparked fevered speculation that they could land an 8th school to break the Grant of Rights and dissolve the conference and then it's game on for raiding the ACC. Do I think that's going to happen? Not imminently unless there have been far more behind-the-scenes moves that anyone knows about. It might be in a few years, but my general read of the environment is that the B1G is going to let USC and UCLA (still weird to me) settle in for a few years and then I would say around 2026 or 2027 things might get interesting again.
You can ship out all the ACC schools to wherever you want, but I think you need to pour cold water on the idea of the SEC and B1G just divvying them up because I don't think it's going to be as simple as that.
First, you need the Pac-12 to figure their shit out. At some point, there's going to be a media deal and their schools will get the numbers and if it's within the ballpark of the Big 12, I don't think any of them are going to move. I'm also going to guess that once that deal is finalized, San Diego State is getting a call and I'm guessing SMU as well.
Second, the B1G and the SEC need to figure out what their raison d'etre is going to be not in today's landscape, but in the landscape five or ten years from now, and while it's fun to speculate, these conferences aren't going to make moves based necessarily on media markets (Maryland, Rutgers) and they're not necessarily going to make moves on demographics (Texas, Oklahoma, A&M) and there aren't that many Tiffany Brands left out there on the board (Nebraska, Notre Dame.)
So where does that leave the B1G? I think it depends on what the B1G wants-- the academic side has driven conference expansion far more than people realize or want to acknowledge. Schools aren't going to want their payouts to drop by adding schools for the sake of adding schools, so I think selling expansion to the University Presidents becomes a tougher sell from here on out. However: the B1G is now a coast-to-coast conference... there's something to be said for a coast-to-coast alliance of the best academic/research institutions in the country. That's something I think you can sell University Presidents on. I think the lessons of West Virginia in the Big 12 are not lost on other conferences and that's why I don't think the B1G is done out west.
If you're going to go for the 'coast-to-coast alliance of the best academic/research institutions in the country' thing and you want Notre Dame (because that's the one school the B1G will add in a heartbeat and why I think if they could add Stanford and Notre Dame, they'd probably do that and call it good) then, you've got to decide on a number... let's say everyone maxes out at 24. If so, I'd bet on this:

• Notre Dame
• UNC
• Georgia Tech
• FSU
• Colorado
• Kansas
• Arizona
• Stanford

This list makes sense to me. It firms up the B1G's geographic footprint and builds a bridge out towards USC and UCLA, gets Notre Dame, and pushes the B1G into the Southeast and the Sunbelt (which is where the people are). Getting into Florida makes sense with FSU and Georgia Tech being in Atlanta makes sense from a market point of view.
There are some caveats here: I know there's a lot of speculation about Virginia, but I think they're paired up with VaTech pretty tightly (maybe even legislatively) and I don't know if the B1G will want both, but I could see both Virginia schools making sense from a geographic standpoint.
I have similar concerns about Kansas. I think they'd be a solid add because they (along with Colorado) would make Nebraska fit a bit better into the B1G than it does now- but Kansas State might be attached at their hip and conferences might want to avoid legislative entanglements.
You could pass on Kansas and pick up Utah or Arizona State or you could ignore both Colorado and Kansas and go get Oregon and Washington. I just think geographic footprint is going to be more of a consideration next time than people think. Stanford is not great at football at the moment and seems like a longshot, but if you want to get Notre Dame to move, taking two of the west coast teams they play every year might be what you have to do.
The really fascinating question then becomes what the SEC is going to do. I think 'cultural fit' is far more important for them than it necessarily is for the B1G so if they're going to 24, I could see:

• Miami
• Clemson
• UNC
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• FSU
• Kansas
• Oklahoma State

If I have caveats with the B1G list, I've got a lot more with the SEC's options. There will absolutely be an almighty scrap between the SEC and the B1G over UNC and maybe one or both of the Virginia schools. Losers in that battle could easily settle for Duke or NC State, but the SEC is going to be an interesting conference to watch here. The B1G has a path for coast-to-coast dominance if it wants to go that route, the SEC, on the other hand, is left with some difficult questions: they've got South Carolina and Florida already-- given that, what do Clemson, and FSU, and Miami bring to the table?
Grabbing Kansas might get you the Border War and wedge Mizzou in a little tighter into your conference, but that shifts the geographic center of your conference westward- making it more Texas-centric... are they going to be okay with that? They've got a lot more overlap problems than the B1G does... the B1G can expand its brand and presence into places it's just not. The SEC is hemmed in.
That's why, as fun, as this speculation is, I think there might be less expansion than people think going forward. The B1G might start making moves on their own, but the SEC and the B1G have been sort of mirroring one other in the last few rounds of expansion, but I think that's at an end now and given news like this you have to think they're going to hold firm for a little while and see where the landscape shakes out in a few years before anything major breaks. I really do think that the B1G would take Stanford right now if it got them Notre Dame and then be perfectly happy. The ACC rumblings could be just that: rumblings and table setting to get more money in the next contract or to force contract renegotiation.
Either way: the ACC ain't dead yet.

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I've never posted here before, and I'm a Devils fan so I'm relatively impartial. But to be succinct, the situation of the Arizona Coyotes has devolved into a point where it's the definition of an embarrassment to the NHL. It's bizarre. They are a pop up franchise, unsupported multiple times by the local populace and facing the prospect of a lame-duck season in a college rink where they likely won't sell out most games.
Gary Bettman may have had too many fingers in the pot in Phoenix, for too long, but I think that as a businessman (who helped rescue the smaller market Canadian teams that remain up north in the mid-90s), even he can see the writing on the wall. The Yotes are a literal blight on the league, a farce that is sucking money and credibility down with it, day by day at this point.
After the Tempe vote, we have to assume the league is now seriously considering a forced sale and relocation. That said, in my opinion, this is worse than the Thrashers at the end of their time in Atlanta. They got bought out by a ready-made ownership group, arena, and fanbase... and that's why I think Quebec is the best fit for the Yotes, right now, in May 2023.
Cons to this: -Small media market which chips into the Habs' hegemony over Quebec. -Effectively no corporate base in town. I've been to QC several times, and can first hand state that such a thing doesn't really exist. -Realignment or unbalancing (more likely) of the conferences. Detroit or Columbus would have to take a massive payout to move to the West, I'd imagine. -QC doesn't bring new markets/fans into hockey.
Pros: -An ownership group who submitted a previous expansion bid lying in wait. -A hockey market that will sell out every game for years, regardless of how bad the team is. -An NHL-ready arena.
To the cons, there are counterpoints. Given how hungry Canadians are for more NHL representation in general, I'm sure the Habs ownership would be amenable in some sort of deal to a Yotes relocation to QC. Corporate sponsors could always be cobbled together through provincial corporations and national ones (Ubisoft and Timmy Horton's?). Realignment could be punted until the expected realignment to at least 34 teams, at which point you could put two teams in SLC and Houston. Which also serves as a counter to the "new fans" argument.
Not to mention each other candidate city has issues... QC is the best "right now, take the keys and go" option. SLC doesn't have the arena, KC doesn't have a potential owner, and Houston would have to work a tenancy deal out with the Rockets owner.
Tldr: the league should do the right business and hockey thing and move the Coyotes to Quebec.

Everything you wanted to know about football but were afraid to ask. Ask about any and all things college football here. There are no dumb questions, only plays you don’t know yet.
Serious questions only, please! Joke posts will be removed. Please do not downvote honest questions.
Got a more specific question or idea? Check out the weekly thread schedule for more:

Day	Thread	Time (ET)
Monday	The Monday Morning Playoff Committee	11:00 AM
	The Monday Afternoon Conference Realignment Committee	2:30 PM
Friday	Football Question Hotline	10:55 AM
	Free Talk Friday	11:00 AM

This is the weekly schedule during the offseason, there's a lot more during the season!

Currently a 11 team league, no football. Regardless of what other conferences may claim, since its inception, the Big East is the cream of the crop in terms of basketball power conferences. The question is how does this Catholic based, basketball rooted conference remains on top. Some candidates I’ll put out are Notre Dame, as they are independent in football (the big 10 anti-catholic sentiment in the early years is often very over-looked when talking realignment). ND is a premier catholic institute, with traditionally strong sports, and basketball. Boston College, who has been awful in the ACC and is a top brand Catholic Institute, and founding member. They would have to become IND in football, joining the likes of Notre Dame and Uconn. That’s 13 members. My 3 other additions to bring the league to 16 teams are listed below. My list of potential schools was large, but after careful consideration these 3 schools make the most sense. Here they are.
*Disclaimer: I’ve avoided traditional ACC schools as I believe the ACC inevitable implosion could lead to some exciting things for the Big East. I truly believe Syracuse can come back, I think Pitt might give it a thought. They may have too good of a football program but not enough ‘clout’ to go independent in football. But Duke is a prime school for the Big East, with a lack luster football program but a blue blood of college hoops, they may be left behind by the B10 and SEC. For the benefit of the Big East basketball brand. But let’s avoid further speculation and speculate some more.
University of Dayton(Dayton, OH) A catholic school, yes, CATHOLIC. With one of the largest budgets in college basketball and a basketball facility that tops most NCAA lists. Doesn’t add to the Big East footprint, but it does solidfy the midwestern market.
University of Gonzaga (Spokane, WA)- Surprised? I hate it too. But this is where we are at. Gonzaga needs a big boy conference, Gonzaga needs to rub elbows with the best. Imagine a Gonzaga talented team playing in a tournament with big east style grit. Yeah, their regular season records may not be as pretty, but that’s what makes the Big East the Big East. It’s a dog fight, every game. And Gonzaga needs to be fed to the wolves to climb the mountain. Jordan needed the Pistons brute to get his strength, Gonzaga needs the Big East bruises to find theirs. They seem to always be one step behind the other power houses. I believe that is a result of their conference schedule. As far as for the Big East, well, it just got a whole lot bigger. But the addition of a basketball powerhouse and brand like Gonzaga is undeniable for the conference. Oh, did I mention? Jesuit University, CATHOLIC. As a non FBS school, Gonzaga again fits the mold of a basketball first school. Yes, the travel is a pain, but remember Nebraska’s Creighton make some awful long trips our way, so it’s not so different for them.
St. Mary’s (Moraga, CA) Gonzaga needs a stable mate and a natural rival. They need easier travel. St. Mary’s is a historically strong basketball university. They don’t have a big brand. They don’t have huge facilties. They have blue collar grit and that is Big East identity. They are also a Jesuit University, Catholic, as well as a non- FBS football school. Other than their location, they are a perfect fit for the Big East brand of basketball. When UCLA and USC are playing in Maryland and New Jersey next season, maybe the idea of Gonzaga and St. Mary’s won’t be so ludacrious.
Uconn Boston College Providence St. John’s Seton Hall Villanova Georgetown Xavier
Marquette Creighton Depaul Butler Notre Dame Dayton Gonzaga St. Mary’s
Could you imagine that tournament at MSG? Could you imagine the TV deal from old friends ESPN or even Fox? Could you imagine adding potentially Duke and Syracuse to that in the event of a ACC collapse?
What I don’t want to see happen. As a Uconn fan, Uconn, do not leave the Big East. Do not seek football money, do not seek football fame. At best Uconn is a potential (Mora Jr I have faith in you) a 8-4, 9-3 team with close 3 to 4 losses coming at the hands of power 5 schools that as Captain Insano said “Shows no Mercy” Uconn should stay with the Big East and continue this beautiful thing which has been created as the last bastion of basketball supremacy left in college sports.

The Arizona Coyotes have officially been boxed out of Tempe, have set up every GM they've ever had to fail, bleed millions of dollars every year and it is FINALLY going to catch up with Gary Bettman.
If you've talked with hockey fans about who's getting teams, you hear a lot of Quebec City and even MORE of Houston- neither one is wholly viable and here's why.
Houston: if you're moving the Coyotes to Houston, you're moving them there to play in Toyota Center. Sure, I think Houston is long deserving of an NHL team but I don't feel the Yotes are the way to go about it.
Houston historically struggles to show up for losing teams- once the recency-hype of the Coyotes coming in wears off, you'd be stuck with a situation no better than their current one.
The thing about Toyota Center is, do you REALLY trust Norm Fertitta to create a winner in the NHL? He can't even do it in the NBA, there's no way in hell he's hiring a coherent-enough front office to build a contender out of Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton and Karel Vejmelka.
And no prospecting buyer in Houston is going to pay a 337% markup to play their home games there. And Houston CERTAINLY isn't building an arena for a project franchise in a sport they haven't put stock in since the mid 70s.
Quebec City: Quebec City would be an electric locale for an NHL team, there isn't even an argument against that; however, there's two things going against them here.
A) They're in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings or Blue Jackets are not playing 2/3 of their schedule jetlagged for Quebec City to have a team NOW, it's just not plausible.
B) The NHL never even "wanted" the Nordiques in the first place. They wanted the Whalers, Jets and Oilers; the WHA wanted the NHL to take the Cincinnati Stingers, Houston Aeros and Quebec Nordiques as well. The two met half way; the Nordiques from the beginning were a "compromise".
The NHL wasn't even that dead set on getting them... at all, and remember, that was PRE Gary Bettman, that whole botching of the WHA merger isn't even something he can be blamed for (that's not to say some people don't try).
And all of that aside, you're really clamouring for the COYOTES to come to town? You're QUEBEC CITY, you know damn well you'll get a fresh new expansion slate in the next decade anyways, why would you want a franchise that's already only hanging by a thread?
I know it sucks to not have a team, but it'd honestly be a better payoff to wait at this point.
So with the Big 2 cities presenting some issues, what are the other options? Kansas City maybe, they HAVE a suitable arena but could you find an owner? There's Milwaukee but taking a team THIS bad to compete in a market historically contended between Minnesota and (to a greater degree) Chicago?
You could take a chance on Salt Lake City or OKC but to compete in basketball cities as a hockey team would be next to impossible; that's not to say they could NEVER pull it off, but they'd need a... "sexier" approach to work out.
Building a suitible arena in a location like New Orleans would take money that the Coyotes/Alex Meruelo don't have, and rumor says Benson would pose some of the same pushback as Fertitta to play at Smoothie King.
Okay, but why is everybody looking past San Diego? They have money, they have people who WANT a hometown team to cheer for during the fall and winter months. They're bitter. They lost the Chargers AND Clippers.
The city has the space AND the money to help build a nice arena. It's a scenic location with a lot of regional pride, you wouldn't have people buying the team just to be known as "the guy that's gonna move them."
It's in the Western Conference; no needless divisional realignments. Despite it being the ONLY CITY IN THE US OR CANADA that ticks all of the boxes, I don't see anybody pushing for it.
It's the least risky, among the most beneficial if done right, it's what I would call the "sexiest" option and most of all, you're not dealing with three other pro teams to contend with like in Phoenix, they get 5 months where it's them, and ONLY them.
And most of all, it's a proven sports city, one that is passionate and feuls healthy rivalries, particularly with Los Angeles. The 3 way dynamic between them, the Ducks and the Kings each completing rebuilds and jockeying for spots in the Pacific for the next decade would genuinely give me goosebumps.

Discuss your thoughts on all things related to conference realignment here--including hypothetical scenarios and how they might play out!

All this realignment talk makes me what to visualize everything and play around with membership. Is there a website or app to easily do this?
I am just looking for something where I can easily slot names/logos and move things around (Maybe rename a conference or two). If this doesn't exist maybe someone more computer savvy could come up with something so we could more easily share ideas without just typing it out or using Excel.